Dillo Dirt

Dillo Dirt is a Austin, TX product sold as fertilizer but made from sewage sludge. Hundreds of communities across the U.S. sell toxic sludge products that are typically renamed biosolids and sold or given away as "fertilizer" or "compost" (and often even labeled or marketed as "natural" or "organic").

According to one website:


 * "The city of Austin, Texas composts biosolids with wood chips, yard wastes, and sawdust. The resulting product is called Dillo Dirt. Dillo Dirt is sold to vendors under contract with the city. The vendors include topsoil companies, nurseries, garden suppliers, landscapers, and a turf farm. The demand for Dillo Dirt far exceeds the available supply."

Dillo Dirt - Sea of Toxic Mud
Several people complained about rashes from Dillo Dirt, compost made from treated sewage sludge, after the Austin City Limits festival. People believe Dillo Dirt “oozed from the rain-soaked grounds at Zilker Park”. Austin Health Department spokeswoman Carole Barasch advises people who think they became ill from Dillo Dirt to call the health department’s disease surveillance branch.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Biosolids
 * Sewage sludge
 * Food Rights Network
 * Sewage sludge giveaways, producers, and brands
 * The EPA's plan to bypass opposition to sewage sludge disposal
 * Water Environment Federation
 * You say biosolids, I say sewage sludge

External Resources

 * Marie Kulick, Smart Guide on Sludge Use and Food Production, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2008.
 * Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey: EPA-822-R-08-016 and EPA-822-R-08-018, EPA, January 2009.
 * Environmental Working Group, Dumping Sewage Sludge On Organic Farms? Why USDA Should Just Say No, April, 1998.
 * Environmental Working Group, Routes of Exposure sewage sludge: EWG Research on Chemicals in sewage sludge, April 30, 1998.

External Articles

 * Quita Culpepper, "City of Austin's Dillo Dirt program to expand," KVUE, June 22, 2011.
 * Mary Ann Roser, Dillo Dirt rash? Call health department at 972-5555, The Statesman, October 15, 2009.